Teacher allegedly asked about 'love'

Wednesday

May 22, 2013 at 6:00 AMMay 22, 2013 at 10:43 AM

By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF

His alleged victim told a jury Tuesday that she and David Gilman first kissed on the night of the 2009 Halloween dance at the Leicester Middle School, when she was a 12-year-old seventh-grader and Mr. Gilman was her music teacher.

The now 16-year-old said she was with friends in the middle school gymnasium when she received a text message from Mr. Gilman asking her to meet him out in the hallway. From there, she said, she followed Mr. Gilman into the nearby music room, where he proceeded to kiss her and she “kissed him back.”

The teen was the first witness called by Assistant District Attorney Courtney Sans during Mr. Gilman's Worcester Superior Court trial on charges of child rape aggravated by age difference and indecent assault and battery on a child by a mandated reporter.

In her opening statement to the jury, Ms. Sans said she expected the evidence to show that the complaining witness fell in love with the now 44-year-old ex-teacher because he “made her feel special” and shared her passion for music, art, dance and drama.

The prosecutor said the two first met when the alleged victim was a sixth-grader participating in the Nature's Classroom program, and that their relationship eventually turned sexual in nature.

During her testimony under direct examination, the 16-year-old was asked to read from a transcript of Facebook conversations she said she had with Mr. Gilman, a Brookfield resident who has not been employed by the Leicester School Department since February 2010, after the allegations against him were first made public.

“How much do you love me?” the complaining witness said she was asked by her teacher during one exchange.

“More than anyone or anything, even acting and singing,” was her response.

After the Halloween dance kiss, she said, Mr. Gilman told her during one of their Facebook conversations that she was “a natural kisser.”

In his opening statement to the jury, Mr. Gilman's lawyer, Michael G. Cashman, did not dispute that his client wrote the Facebook messages being offered into evidence, but said Mr. Gilman denied ever kissing the alleged victim or touching her inappropriately.

Mr. Cashman explained the Facebook exchanges by saying his client was an alcoholic at the time, that his marriage was suffering because of his drinking and that his relationship with his wife was deteriorating. He said the alleged victim “flirted” with Mr. Gilman and that he “flirted back, as inappropriate as it was.

“But, it was nothing more than a fantasy to him,” Mr. Cashman told the jury. “It simply never went beyond that,” he said.

Mr. Cashman said there would be “constant inconsistencies” between what the complaining witness said on Facebook and what she told authorities went on between her and Mr. Gilman.

He also told the jurors his client would testify in his own defense.

Under questioning by Ms. Sans, the alleged victim recounted a Facebook exchange between her and Mr. Gilman during which she said she told him that one of her friends had been to her house and had possibly read one of their online conversations while she was out of the room.

She said Mr. Gilman cautioned her that he risked losing his job and going to jail if others were privy to their communications.